1786 in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1786 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

 * Lord Lieutenant of Anglesey - Henry Paget
 * Lord Lieutenant of Brecknockshire and Monmouthshire – Charles Morgan of Dderw
 * Lord Lieutenant of Caernarvonshire - Thomas Bulkeley, 7th Viscount Bulkeley
 * Lord Lieutenant of Cardiganshire – Wilmot Vaughan, 1st Earl of Lisburne
 * Lord Lieutenant of Carmarthenshire – John Vaughan
 * Lord Lieutenant of Denbighshire - Richard Myddelton
 * Lord Lieutenant of Flintshire - Sir Roger Mostyn, 5th Baronet
 * Lord Lieutenant of Glamorgan – John Stuart, Lord Mountstuart
 * Lord Lieutenant of Merionethshire - Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 4th Baronet
 * Lord Lieutenant of Montgomeryshire – George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis
 * Lord Lieutenant of Pembrokeshire – Sir Hugh Owen, 5th Baronet (until 16 January); Richard Philipps, 1st Baron Milford (from 11 June)
 * Lord Lieutenant of Radnorshire – Edward Harley, 4th Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer


 * Bishop of Bangor – John Warren
 * Bishop of Llandaff – Richard Watson
 * Bishop of St Asaph – Jonathan Shipley
 * Bishop of St Davids – Edward Smallwell

Events

 * 25 December - Plymouth ironworks is leased to Richard Hill.
 * The Kinmel estate is sold to the Rev Edward Hughes for £42,000.
 * Abraham Rees completes his edition of Chambers 's Encyclopaedia, and is elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in recognition of his work.
 * Charles Pratt is created Earl Camden.

New books

 * David Samwell - A Narrative of the Death of Captain James Cook
 * Hester Lynch Piozzi - Anecdotes of the late Samuel Johnson, Ll.D., during the last twenty years of his life
 * Helen Maria Williams - Poems

Music

 * William Ellis - Ychydig o Hymnau a Chaniadau Newyddion (collection of hymns)
 * Benjamin Francis - Aleluia (collection of hymns)

Births

 * 6 April - John Humffreys Parry, barrister and antiquary (died 1825)
 * May - John Jones, printer and inventor (died 1865)
 * 22 June - Ellis Evans, minister and author (died 1864)
 * 22 July - John Edward Madocks, MP for Denbigh (died 1837)

Deaths

 * 16 January - Sir Hugh Owen, 5th Baronet, politician, about 55
 * 21 January - Anthony Bacon, ironmaster, 67
 * 12 March - Barbara Herbert, Countess of Powis, 51
 * 2 July (bur.) - John Ystumllyn, gardener, "first well-recorded black person of North Wales"
 * 16 September - Edward Parry, poet and hymn-writer, 63